A quad HD smartphone display, like the kind we find on the LG G3 or new Galaxy S5 LTE-A edition, has the obvious benefit of packing a heck of a lot more pixels than a 1080p component. And simply by nature of being the latest-and-greatest, its presence on a phone is going to attract a lot of attention from spec-focused, technically-minded shoppers. But once you get past the novelty of a screen with such incredible pixel density, are there other real benefits to be found? In the case of the GS5 LTE-A’s display, that answer looks to be “yes,” as testing confirms some substantially improved output.

You can talk about what subjectively looks better all day long, but AnandTech put the GS5 LTE-A’s screen to the test using professional display analysis hardware. Some of the results only show minor improvements over the screen in the original GS5, like slightly better brightness, and while the white balance is different from what you’ll find on the GS5, it’s not necessarily much closer to where it should be.

The real changes come when we look at color reproduction, and from saturation, to even grayscale accuracy, the GS5 LTE-A shows marked improvement. Most tests found it neck-and-neck against the iPhone 5C for the top spot, even besting the Apple phone in some rounds. Things still aren’t perfect, with a bit too much green in the GS5 LTE-A’s color balance, but it looks like Samsung’s got its head in the right place with this move into quad HD.

Stephen has been writing about electronics since 2008, which only serves to frustrate him that he waited so long to combine his love of gadgets and his degree in writing. In his spare time, he collects console and arcade game hardware, is a motorcycle enthusiast, and enjoys trapping blue crabs. Stephen’s first mobile device was a 624 MHz Dell Axim X30, which he’s convinced is still a viable platform. Stephen longs for a market where phones are sold independently of service, and bandwidth is cheap and plentiful; he’s not holding his breath. In the meantime, he devours smartphone news and tries to sort out the juicy bits